Study: Portland not growing all that fast

A home under construction. (Portland Tribune)

PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Sometimes it seems like everyone’s moving to Portland, which is why housing prices are increasing so fast and new apartment buildings are popping up all over town to accommodate all the new residents.

But in fact, the Portland metropolitan region grew by less than 1 percent last year, according to a study by theABODO residential research organization. The population of 12 other metropolitan regions in the country increased at a faster rate than Portland — including Austin, which grew by 1.71 percent, the fastest growing region in the country.

According to ABODO Senior Communications Manager Sam Radbil, the study was conducted by analyzing the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data, which was released in September 2016.

The study found that people moving into the federally-defined Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro region equally 7.28 percent of the population in 2015. But that figures is deceiving because 6.6 percent of the population moved out, resulting in a net increase of just .91 percent.

“Portland ranked number 11 in the country when it came to people leaving the city from 2014 to 2015. And in terms of people moving into the city, Portland ranked number 8,” the ABODO research team says.

Regions that grew faster than Portland include Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

“At ABODO, we set out to uncover which cities residents are leaving the fastest. And as it turns out, Portland residents left the city at a very high rate. But overall, the amount of people moving into Portland was larger than those leaving, thus, a population increase between 2014 and 2015,” the team says.